Lesson 6 - Do You Know Danny?

Hebrew Lesson Number 6: 

Do You Know Danny?

They say it’s a small world, and when it comes to Israelis it’s especially true! Someone always knows someone. Find out if you know someone too!

Learning Hebrew Online

Our Hebrew Transliteration System

Transliteration is the technique of using a system of letters taken from one language for writing words of another language, which has a different letters’ system.

In our case, we will use letters from the English Alphabet for transcribing words in Hebrew, meaning, words that are originally written in the Hebrew Alef Bet. 

Let’s see two examples of words you’re probably familiar with

To-ra

Sha-lom

Transliteration, by its nature, is not a definite technique and one might find different ways of writing the same origin word when transformed into another set of letters.

Described here, you will find our approach for transliteration.

We believe that by reviewing the next “transliteration map” and understanding its basic logic, you will find reading English transliteration of Hebrew words, a very easy task.

One thing needs to be strongly acknowledged before beginning to practice:

Hebrew is a very “syllabetic” language, meaning, each syllable is very well distinguished from its previous or next syllable. When starting to practice,please use this knowledge as your basic reading rule. Start by reading slowly and make sure each Hebrew syllable is separate and distinguished!

Please also note that in Hebrew, there are two kinds of syllables: an open syllable and a closed syllable. 

The open syllable ends with a vowel. The closed syllable ends with a consonant.

In the Hebrew word - sha-lom, the first syllable “sha” is an open one. The second syllable “lom” is a closed one.

In the Hebrew word - To-ra, both of the syllables are open.

תורה

There are ONLY five vowels in Hebrew. When actually reading Hebrew, there are several options of writing and reading each of these vowels, but on our transliteration, we will use only one English letter for each vowel articulation.

The letter “a” will always be used as A

The letter “e” will always be used as E

The letter “I” will always be used as I

The letter “o” will always be used as O

The letter “u” will always be used as U

*Understand our Hebrew transliteration system by reading and listening to the full audio lesson here

Introduction to Lesson 6: 

Do You Know Danny?

Learn Hebrew Pod - Lesson No. 6

Israel is a country steeped in culture and appreciation for the performing arts.  It is home to the internationally-acclaimed Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Ha-bima Theatre, the Israel Opera, the Israel Ballet, and the Akko Theater Festival--just to name a few.

Liat and Eran are very involved in the arts . . . they are both actors, and Liat is a dancer as well!  In honor of Liat’s upcoming performance with her dance company, in Learn Hebrew Pod Lesson 6A, we will learn some dance-related vocabulary.  

Dance Company - להקת מחול

We’ll also learn the Hebrew way to send someone regards (since it turns out that Eran and Liat have many friends in common within the artistic community).  

In addition, we will get our first look at a special Hebrew word that does not exist in English--the word “et.”

Then in Audio/Visual Lesson 6B, we will build on what we learned in Lessons 3 and 4, as Jonathan introduces us to one of the most important and unique features of the Hebrew language--the system of building blocks used to conjugate verbs.  

!בהצלחה

For now, let’s have some examples of sentences in which we will use the “et” versus some that we will not:

Eran, how would you ask Liat: ”Do you know a dancer?”

Eran: Since, in this instance I’m asking her if she knows a dancer, and this can be any dancer and not someone particular, I will just ask:

“at makira rakdan?”

It might make more sense if I’m looking for a good dancer, and I asked her:

“at makira rakdan tov?”…. “Do you know a good dancer?”